Facie’s Ramblings

This evening, after hearing the kid whine about something, I wearily begged her to stop, saying that no one likes a whiner. J's response, which I have heard all too often lately, was that I don't like her for who she is. Sigh. I love my child more than anything and, like most parents, more than my life. I genuinely want to be with her as much as possible (which is why for the first time in four years I am sad that school is ending). But the kid can whine better than a three-year-old, and it is getting old. And when she says to me that I don't like her, or even that I don't love her, I reply, just as my one grandmother often said, "I love you, but I don't like some of the things you do." But that is almost not the point (though if you have any suggestions for how to get her to stop whining, I am all ears). My larger concern is her lamenting that I (and others) don't want her to be herself. I tried to explain, as best as I could, that there are thi...

This week I have been teaching Vacation Bible School, something I am grateful to have the opportunity to do. I want to be sure the kids have fun while learning the Bible stories. but the real challenge is determining how lenient to be and how many feelings I should try to spare. Yesterday, I told my 12 kids to divide up into groups of three or four for a scavenger hunt. Once the kids did that, because I had an extra list, I asked if anyone wanted to work alone. After about 30 seconds, one girl volunteered, and I then started to explain the instructions. Soon after, one boy started to get upset because he insisted that he really had wanted to work by himself. I explained that I had asked for volunteers (and I actually looked right at him when I asked this question), and he did not speak up. This seemed to upset him even more, and he next said that he wanted to work with the girl who was going solo. For about five seconds I considered telling him, as nicely as possible, that he needed to...

I have been in a weird place lately. Over the past week or two, I have nearly "written" several posts in my head and pretty much finished one while at the park Thursday. The ramblings lent themselves to names such as the following: "If I actually publish this post, I am pretty sure some friends will be calling me with great concern" "Where is my happy place"  "I can't cry hard enough" "Missing person" "Paralyzed by fear"  As for the first title, well, it is probably obvious that when that post was swirling around my head, I was pretty down. Fortunately, that post never came to fruition. Later, things looked up and something got me smiling again. But, alas, something else had me singing the blues before too long. It could have been another struggle with Jordan (that happens a lot lately, and I am quite sure a post will eventually come of it). Perhaps Brian and I were arguing about Jordan (yeah, it's a problem) o...

Last week, on the last day of school, Jordan got into the car with some certificates from awards day. She handed me the one she was "most proud of"--a certificate for athletics. I scanned it as I came to a stop sign, and I at first thought she had won an award for being the most athletic. This immediately caused flashbacks to childhood, during which I was pretty much the slowest and most non-athletic kid in the class. I was in slightly better shape as I entered high school, but mostly still just skinny and completely devoid of grace. And pretty much almost always picked last for gym class. (See an old blog pos t about that.) Because of these unpleasant memories, I decided right then and there a photo of Jordan's certificate would be going up on Facebook, so all my former classmates could see that my kid was nothing like I was. She had hope! As I came to a stoplight, I read the certificate more closely and realized that she had actually ran the mile in gym class in just ...

Yesterday's post was a rant about a fairly pointless two-hour delay. For the record, if it is snowing in the morning or if it has snowed throughout the night, I am not against a delay; the road crews have a lot of ground to cover. It is unfortunate for those who still need to get to work and are left scrambling to find child care or have to go in late. But I am all about safety. It is the temps that are clearly going nowhere any time soon that do not warrant a delay, again, in my opinion. It will be cold all day today. Having another delay today, once again, seemed pointless, but I am over it. ***** I had a rough weekend, and I have debated whether I should write about it. As my mom and one of my brothers are so fond of saying (though I will be paraphrasing), "Once you put it down in writing (on paper or in an email), it will always be there. You can't take it back." For that reason, when things weigh heavily on my mind, I don't always share them in this blog....

The P-G recently published an editorial/article from a mother of an autistic child in the Hampton School District. Apparently some parents of her son Jake's high school classmates felt that Jake was disrupting class too much and taking time away from their kids' learning, which they feared could ultimately hinder their kids' chances of getting into a good college. Not willing to own up to their feelings, these "concerned" parents sent an anonymous letter to Jake's mother Renee asking her to consider an alternative setting for Jake. Wow is all I have to say. Well, almost all. As I blogged about last year, there was a mildly autistic child in the vacation Bible school class I taught. It was very challenging for me, someone who had pretty much no experience in that area, but I was glad that child was able to do what all the others did that week. I think we all benefited from the experience, and I would not have traded that opportunity for anything. In fact,...

When I was a kid, and we played the Farmer in the Dell, the last person picked to join the inside of the circle was the cheese. Once that person was picked, every except the cheese left the inside of the circle and sang, "The cheese stands alone. The cheese stands alone. Hi-ho, the derry-o. The cheese stands alone" At Jordan's preschool, once the cheese is picked to join the circle, "We all hug the cheese." The cheese apparently no longer stands alone. I was taken aback by this when she told me, but yet not really surprised. God forbid we hurt anyone's feelings, but I guess I am a little guilty of trying to spare kids, especially mine, pain. Because Jordan has a rather strong personality, and she has, at times, left other kids out, I usually don't mind when other kids ignore her. I can turn that into a life's lesson and say something like, "Now you know how it feels for C when you don't play with her at school." But I am not sure she ...